광기의 中...이번엔 '치사율 100%' 코로나 변이 제조

 (서울=뉴스1) 박태훈 선임기자 = 중국이 적극 부인하고 있지만 '코로나19'는 중국 실험실에서 만든 바이러스가 사고로 유출돼 널리 퍼졌다는 의심이 사라지지 않고 있는 것이 사실이다.

지난 4년여 동안 세계인을 괴롭히고 경제에 엄청난 타격을 끼쳤던 중국이 이번엔 '치사율 100%'에 달하는 코로나변이 바이러스 실험에 나서자 국제 학계가 "백해무익한 불장난은 당장 멈춰야 한다"며 분노를 쏟아냈다.

17일(현지시간) 미국 뉴욕포스트 등에 따르면 베이징화학기술대학, 베이징 PLA종합병원, 난징대 의대로 구성된 연구진이 최근 코로나 변이 바이러스인 'GX_P2V'를 실험용 쥐에 주입, 그 결과를 생물학 논문 공유 사이트 바이오아카이브(BioRxiv)에 게재했다.

중국 연구진은 실험에 앞서 쥐의 뇌를 인간과 유사한 유전적 구성을 갖도록 조작한 뒤 'GX_P2V' 바이러스를 실험용 쥐 4마리에 주입시켰다.

바이러스가 폐, 뼈, 눈 등으로 침투해 고통을 겪은 쥐들은 급격한 체중 감소와 체형 변형 증상을 보였다.

실험용 쥐들이 8일 만에 모두 죽은 가운데 죽기 전날 쥐들의 눈이 하얗게 변하는 특이한 양상을 보였다.

중국 연구진이 이용한 코로나 변이 바이러스'GX_P2V'는 코로나19의 사촌격인 'GX/2017'의 변형으로 2017년 말레이시아의 천산갑에서 처음 발견됐다.

이러한 중국측의 실험에 대해 국제학계는 우려를 감추지 못하고 있다.

유니버시티 칼리지 런던 유전학 연구소의 프랑수아 발루 교수는 "이처럼 끔찍한 연구는 과학적으로 완전히 무의미하다"며 "이번 연구가 또 다른 팬데믹을 야기할 수 있는 '잠재적인 감염성 병원체'를 만들었다"고 걱정했다.

젠나디 글린스키 미국 스탠퍼드 의대 명예교수도 "이 광기를 너무 늦기 전에 멈춰야 한다"고 중국 측에 요구했다.

PLAYING WITH FIRE 

Chinese scientists test chilling new Covid Franken-virus ‘with 100% kill rate’ in humanised mice

An epidemiology expert slammed the research as 'reckless'

• Imogen Braddick

• Published: 8:40 ET, Jan 17 2024
• Updated: 9:00 ET, Jan 17 2024

CHINESE scientists experimented with a mutant Covid strain that has a 100 per cent "kill rate" in humanised mice.

The lethal virus attacked the brains of the mice that were engineered to have a similar genetic make-up to humans, according to the new study published this year.

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Workers seen next to a cage with mice inside the a lab in Wuhan, ChinaCredit: AFP

The deadly virus infected the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas and brains of the dead miceCredit: Getty

All the mice that were infected with the virus - known as GX_P2V - died within eight days.

Researchers noted it was a "surprisingly" rapid death rate.

The virus infected the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas and brains of the dead mice.

And the infection of the brain was strong enough to kill the human-like mice.

In the days before their deaths, the mice lost weight, had a hunched posture and moved sluggishly.

And their eyes turned completely white the day before they died, the researchers in Beijing said.

The study is the first of its kind to report a 100 per cent death rate in mice infected by the Covid-related virus.

Scientists said it "underscores a spillover risk of GX_P2V into humans".

The virus was a mutated version of GX/2017 - a coronavirus-related pathogen that was reportedly discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017.

Francois Balloux, an epidemiology expert at UCL's Genetics Institute, slammed the research as "reckless".

“I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanised mice with a random virus," the professor said.

"Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong.

"The preprint does not specify the bio-safety level and bio-safety precautions used for the research.

"The absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with a potential pandemic pathogens."

Dr Gennadi Glinsky, a retired professor of medicine at Stanford, said: "This madness must be stopped before too late."

The study doesn't appear to have any ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Wuhan lab has been at the centre of the lab leak theory ever since Covid first emerged just a stone's throw from the facility - which was known to be studying very similar bat viruses.

Many scientists and intelligence officials suspect bungling researchers at the lab accidentally spread Covid during risky experiments on bat coronaviruses.

Even the FBI and the US Department of Energy now believe Covid most likely leaked from a lab in China.

Documents previously uncovered by DRASTIC - a team of scientists and sleuths investigating Covid's origins - revealed how US scientists applied for funding to create a Covid-like virus in China.

A year later, Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan and spread across the world, killing nearly seven million people.

Emails obtained by US Right to Know (USRTK) show how US scientists appeared to cover up their plan to carry out the high-risk coronavirus experiments in Wuhan with shoddy biosafety measures.

The Sun also revealed that US government health officials deliberately downplayed a lab leak as the most likely cause of the pandemic.

Former intelligence chief John Ratcliffe and top health department official Dr Robert Kadlec spoke out about the fact what was being said in public was not supported by their own intelligence.

Over the summer, reports suggested that US spies were probing whether Covid was created by a Chinese military scientist before it leaked from a Wuhan lab.

Zhou Yusen, who worked for the People’s Liberation Army, filed a patent for a Covid vaccine before the pandemic was declared - and mysteriously died just weeks later.

It followed a secret memo that revealed that China ordered scientists to destroy all early coronavirus samples from their labs just two days after the world was first told about Covid.

As the pandemic was starting to explode across the world, panicked Beijing ordered the labs to share their samples with the government - or destroy them "on the spot", the leaked order shows.